


Set My Heart On Fire

by FollowTheFirefly



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Confessions, Ice Skating, Love Confessions, M/M, Slow Burn, inspired by headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 06:36:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9422738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FollowTheFirefly/pseuds/FollowTheFirefly
Summary: In which Yamaguchi finally convinced Tsukishima to go ice skating.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So this is based on my headcanon that Yamaguchi watches Yuri on Ice. I listened to "Circle Game" by Galileo Galilei while I was writing this and that's what they're listening to when they're skating.

It had all been Tadashi’s idea. If it was up to Kei, he couldn’t have even considered going ice skating, especially considering the biting cold the winter weather brought. Still, Kei found himself out on the frozen pond at the park by Tadashi’s house one bitterly cold Sunday morning, shivering and trying to ignore the snow that was slowly falling from the grey sky. Then again, he found that he did a lot of things for Tadashi that he wouldn’t think of doing for anyone else.

He always wondered why Tadashi joined the volleyball club when he clearly loved ice skating more. And he was so good at it, too. Kei couldn’t keep track of the technical terms, but he didn’t need them to know that his best friend was having fun skating across the ice. 

“Kei, hurry up!”

Kei looked up at Tadashi, who was standing on the middle of the frozen pond, hands on his hips as he stared at his taller friend. He tapped his skate impatiently, the blade cutting into the ice.

“Almost done, Yama.” Kei finished lacing his skates and carefully walked out to the ice to where Tadashi stood.

“Why’re you walking?” Tadashi cocked his head.

“Because I don’t know how to skate?” Kei hated admitting it.

Tadashi stared.

“What?” 

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No?”

“Kei, you really don’t know how to skate?” Tadashi couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Well, I wouldn’t lie about something like that.” Kei fiddled with the headphones on his ears. 

“It’s so easy!” Tadashi exclaimed, skating circles around Kei.

“We all can’t be like that guy on that show you like.” Kei shoved his hands in his pockets, wishing he’d thought to bring gloves with him.

“Oh, you like it and you know it.” Tadashi jumped up to mess with Kei’s hair.

“The theme is kinda obnoxious.” Kei shrugged, shooting a look at Tadashi as he tried to tease his hair back to normal.

“It makes sense if you watch it.” Tadashi assured him. “But what’s not to love about skating?”

“It’s kinda nice watching you skate out here.” Kei said.

“Dancing on the blades, you set my heart on fire…” Tadashi sang playfully, moving away to skate figure-eights.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.” Kei looked away and tried to ignore his heart racing.

“But seriously, I can teach you.” Tadashi skated back to grab Kei’s hand, dragging him further onto the pond. “Hinata asked me to teach Natsu and she had a blast.”

“Natsu’s smaller and enjoys everything.” Kei retorted.

“You’ll like it,” Tadashi said. “But you’ll need to ditch the headphones first.”

“You just don’t want me listening to music.” Kei obliged and slid the headphones down to his neck. 

“If you want music, we can use my speakers.” Tadashi pulled some portable speakers from his coat pocket. 

“Sure, so you don’t hear the sound of me falling every five minutes.” Kei fished his iPod out of his pocket and handed it to Tadashi. 

Tadashi looked at the song on the iPod and glanced back at Kei.

“Don’t you listen to anything else?”

“Akiteru got me their new album the other day.” Kei shrugged.

“But even Kageyama listens to new things every now and then.” Tadashi skated over to the bench by the side of the lake and started to work on getting the music playing.

“Don’t bring Kageyama into this.” Kei protested, following Tadashi as best as he could without falling on the ice.

“You know its true.” Tadashi turned back to Kei. “Ready?”

“I just want to not fall down,” Kei said.

“Then let’s start by just going in slow circles.” Tadashi grabbed Kei’s hand and pulled him out towards the ice. 

“What are you doing?” Kei’s eyes widened.

“There aren’t any rails for you to hold onto out here,” Tadashi said simply. “You trust me, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.” Kei hadn’t exactly thought about the lack of handrails out on the pond.

“And it’ll be easier for you to get up if you fall,” Tadashi went on, trailing along behind Kei as the blond slowly slid across the ice.

“I think you mean when,” Kei pointed out, his eyes staring straight ahead.

“I didn’t fall much when I started,” Tadashi pointed out, remembering his first time skating when he was nine.

“We all aren’t you, Yama.” Kei chanced a look back at Tadashi.

“You’re doing pretty well, though.” Tadashi watched how Kei was trying to distract himself. “But you aren’t paying attention to the ice?”

“Trying something from Hinata.” Kei shook his head.

“From Hinata?” Tadashi repeated, following behind Kei.

“He told me to try not to focus on some things so much,” Kei said. 

“Was this when you two went off in the storage room after practice last week?” Tadashi remembered how strange it had been when Hinata dragged Kei off the court for a while. “What was that about, anyway?”

“Nothing,” Kei said in a voice that told Tadashi that it most certainly was not nothing, but Tadashi knew that Kei wasn’t likely to talk about it further.

“Anyway, do you think it’s working?” Tadashi decided to change the subject.

“Maybe a little.” Kei nodded. 

“Wait, are you actually afraid of this?” Something clicked suddenly in Tadashi’s mind.

“Maybe not afraid…” Kei somehow managed to stop himself, looking down at the ice beneath his skates.

“Hey, that was a good stop, though.” Tadashi hoped he sounded optimistic. “But really, what are you afraid of?”

“I don’t like not being able to control where I’m going.” Kei hated to admit it.

“But you can once you practice enough,” Tadashi said. When Kei didn’t respond, he asked, “Do you want to stop?”

“No.” Kei shook his head. “I know how much you like it.”

“But if you’re afraid of falling…” Tadashi started to say.

“If it was anyone but you, I wouldn’t even be out here.” Kei gripped Tadashi’s hand tighter, looking back at his friend.

“Anyone but me?” Tadashi frowned.

“Can I try going faster?” Kei ignored Tadashi’s question, his eyes focused on Tadashi’s.

“If you want.” Tadashi nodded, realizing that Kei wasn’t going to answer him. “But start slowly and build into the speed.”

Kei took a deep breath and exhaled, his breath forming a small cloud in the cold air. He turned back around, but Tadashi didn’t stop watching him. Kei was normally so calm and collected, but he was a different person when he was with Tadashi.

“It’s a good song,” Tadashi said as Kei slowly inched forward, noticing the change in the music.

“I knew you liked them.” Kei smiled.

“You just like anything that has a connection to space.” Tadashi knew Kei couldn’t deny it.

“Hey, you’re the one who introduced me to them, remember?” Kei pointed out, speeding up just a little bit. “You got me one of their CDs for my birthday two years ago.”

“Because you kept listening to the samples at the music store.” Tadashi went on. “You discovered them yourself.” 

“But I got the first CD from you,” Kei said.

“And you keep going on about me skating when you got me the guards for my skates last year.” Tadashi realized.

“You said you needed new ones.” Kei shrugged, focusing on turning around so they wouldn’t crash into the edge of the pond.

“Hey, you’re getting the hang of this.” Tadashi noticed how Kei was far less shaky than he had been when he started. “Careful that you don’t go too fast, though.”

“I want to try something.” Kei looked back at Tadashi.

“Yeah?” Tadashi had to wonder what Kei was planning.

Kei didn’t say anything, but let go of Tadashi’s hand, slowing down a bit to make sure that he was steady on the ice.

“Nice!” Tadashi was genuinely surprised at how fast Kei was progressing.

“Think so?” Kei circled around.

“I think so.” Tadashi nodded. “Feel better about it now?”

“Maybe a little,” Kei answered, though he had to hold his arms out a bit to steady himself.

“At least you haven’t fallen over yet.” Tadashi pointed out, reaching up to shake some of the snow out of his hair. “Geez, this snow is cold.”

“Don’t jinx me, Yama.” Kei said. “And of course the snow is cold. You should’ve brought a hat.”

“You didn’t either.” Tadashi noted, skating further out to the pond so he could work on his jumps.

“It’s not that bad, though.” Kei was still working on skating in circles. “The skating, I mean.”

“I’m just glad you don’t hate it.” Tadashi moved into a jump that looked far too complicated for Kei.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do that, though.” Kei stopped, watching Tadashi glide across the ice.

“Maybe skating is my thing and volleyball is yours,” Tadashi suggested.

“You should’ve gone with it.” Kei told him, moving towards Tadashi slowly, trying not to hit a rough patch of ice.

“Then we wouldn’t have met.” Tadashi told him. 

“I guess that’s true.” Kei couldn’t imagine how different his life would be without Tadashi.

“I’m bringing the speakers over here.” Tadashi moved over in the direction of the speakers on the other side of the pond.

“Or we could just move over there.” Kei felt that it was a much simpler solution.

“Or we could do that.” Tadashi followed Kei across the pond.

“Hey Tadashi, how exactly do you stop again?” Kei realized he was moving a little too fast.

“You did it before!” Tadashi reminded him. “Twice!”

“Yeah, now I’m finding that I can’t remember.” Tadashi could hear the panic rising in Kei’s voice.

“Hang on,” Tadashi sped up and grabbed Kei’s wrist, trying to pull him to a stop.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting Tadashi to do, but Kei hadn’t been expecting that. He spun around when Tadashi reached him, still trying to stop, but he ended up crashing into Tadashi instead, sending both of them crashing onto the ice.

Kei groaned as he felt a jolt of pain run through his free hand from where it hit the ice. Tadashi still had a firm grip on his other hand and Kei noticed that he had landed on top of him, Tadashi now flat on his back and staring up at Kei. Kei’s glasses had fallen off his face and while he had no clue where they were, the sudden realization that they were missing explained why the world looked significantly blurrier than before. 

That was when they both realized how close they were to each other. Kei could feel Tadashi’s breath on his face and he hoped that he couldn’t hear how fast Kei’s heart was racing. Before he could stop himself, Kei leaned over and pressed his lips to Tadashi’s for a few seconds before he backed away, his eyes on Tadashi. He didn’t do anything, only staring up at Kei in confusion.

“I guess I shouldn’t have done that?” Kei slowly moved back so Tadashi could sit up.

Tadashi remained silent and Kei was starting to get the feeling that he knew what Tadashi’s answer would be.

“Why’d you do it?”

Tadashi sat up gingerly, wincing at the pain in his arm from the fall, and focused on Kei.

“I don’t know, honestly. Because it felt right?” Kei knew that this was a horrible answer. “Sorry, I know I-“

“Do you mean it? Tadashi interrupted him.

“Wait, what?” Kei’s eyes narrowed. 

“Did that mean what I think it means?” Tadashi was trying to catch his breath and Kei wasn’t sure if it was because of the fall or from their current predicament. 

“I mean, I love you, if that’s what you’re getting at.” Kei really wished that Tadashi would start making some sense.

“Really?” Tadashi wasn’t usually this out of sorts. “I wish I’d said something ages ago.”

Kei was getting the feeling that Tadashi’s comments were only adding to his mounting confusion. “Will you tell me what’s going on because you’re not making any sense right now.”

Tadashi inched forward and gave Kei a quick kiss before moving back.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a long time, but I didn’t know what you’d say about it.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ve never talked about being with anyone. Guys or girls.” Tadashi reached back and rested his hands against the ice. “I didn’t know if that was anything you ever thought about.”

“And here I thought I’d been too obvious for years.” Kei sighed. “What a situation we’ve found ourselves in.” He moved his leg a bit, trying to see just how much damage was done to his knee. “Still, I’m sorry about running into you. Are you okay?”

“Once my heart slows down, yeah.” Tadashi nodded. “Ah, but you lost your glasses.” 

“Yeah, I can’t exactly see much.” Kei tried to bring things into focus, but it was hopeless. “Do you see them anywhere?”

Tadashi looked around before saying, “They’re over here.”

“They aren’t broken, are they?” Kei asked as Tadashi slid over to grab Kei’s glasses where they lay a few feet away.

“Yeah, they’re a bit cracked on the one side…” Tadashi grimaced as he scooted back, handing the glasses back to Kei. “Sorry.”

“I’m the one who ran into you, remember?” Kei took his glasses and examined them as best as he could. “Well, good thing I have a spare pair.”

“No contacts?” Tadashi asked. “I always thought you looked better without glasses.”

“Can’t stand ‘em.” Kei put on the now-broken glasses and sighed. “I guess these’ll do until I get home.”

“At least it isn’t too far from here.” Tadashi said. “I think that’s about enough skating for one day.”

“Yeah, it’s too cold for this.” Kei stood up carefully, reaching out his hand to help Tadashi to his feet. “I’m up for going to the tea shop if you are.”

“First date idea?” Tadashi looked up at Kei.

“It has a nice ring to it.” Kei took Tadashi’s hand and followed him off the ice. “I think if we start telling people, we leave out the part where I ran into you.”

“Hinata won’t let you live that down, no.” Tadashi shook his head, grabbing his portable speakers and handing Kei his iPod. “But maybe you should tell your brother first…”

“Why?” Kei looked at Tadashi in alarm. “What did you tell Akiteru?”

“He sort of figured out years ago and has been trying to get me to say something since then.” Tadashi grinned sheepishly.

“That explains why he’s been so weird whenever you come over.” Kei realized as he slid out of his skates and into his street shoes. “Honestly, Akiteru can be really nosy sometimes.”

“He means well. He was just worried about you.” Tadashi gripped his skates in his hand. 

“He could try worrying about something else.” Kei sighed. “Broken glasses aside, I’m fine.”

“Yeah, we’ll have to get your spare pair before we get tea.” Tadashi said. “But Akiteru really cares about you, you know.”

“Maybe that’s why he’s calling.” Kei’s phone started playing an MIDI ringtone. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and stared at the screen. “I’d know that ringtone anywhere.”

“Kei, you can’t just hang up on your brother.” Tadashi protested as Kei ended the call.

“I’m telling him that I’m going on a date with you and I’ll be back later.” Kei typed away on his phone for a few seconds before shoving it back in his pocket.

“Just that?” Tadashi arched an eyebrow as they walked away from the pond. 

“Yes?” Kei questioned.

“You know he’s going to keep calling you if that’s all you tell him.” Tadashi knew Akiteru almost as well as Kei did.

“That should be good enough for now, don’t you think?” Kei frowned.

“Or not,” Tadashi said. “You know he’ll want details.”

“I’ll have to tell him about it tonight.” Kei shrugged. “Or not.”

“Such a mean brother.” Tadashi smiled, knowing exactly how Akiteru would react if Kei didn’t tell him anything. “And what about when we go home for your glasses?”

“He’s at work right now, so he won’t be there.” Kei was grateful to feel the sidewalk beneath his feet as they walked away from the park. “Crisis averted.”

“More like you’re putting it off.” Tadashi retorted. “You know he’ll start texting me now.”

“Maybe not. He’ll want to hear it from me first.” Kei told him. “For now, let’s go somewhere warm and away from the ice.”

“Had enough falling for one day?” Tadashi smirked.

“I only fell the one time.” Kei protested. “I’d just prefer to be on a spot where I don’t slide all over the place all the time.”


End file.
